Xcalibur Saws, Arbor Extensions & Dados

[Danny]

Hi all been away from the forums for over a year due to lack of time and space for woodwork, and quite frankly visiting here can be depressing when I cant go out and build things

I'm currently looking into the possibility of building a rather large workshop and starting to look into some large machines for a change, naturally I have some questions!

First of all from a whole morning of searching I understand discussion of stacked dados still ends up in heated debate about safety / efficiency. Yes I understand the safety issues of stacked dados, and like most workshop machinery requires caution with use. And it's final, because I hate cutting a lot of rebates with a router. And if it takes 20 minutes to set up a dado cutter then I'm fine with it. So please please please keep it on topic.

I notice that the 10" Xcalibur 3HP Cabinet Saw is popular with a few people on the forums so would be interesting to hear some feedback from them. I'm looking at the 12" 5HP version due to the fact I work with chunky timber a lot and the 4" depth of cut is worth the extra cost for me.

So now for some questions:
1) The required arbor extension that Woodford list, is this something that has to be installed every time a stacked dado is installed, or can it be left on? I'm having a hard time trying to visualise what it will look like once installed so if anybody has any pictures I'd really appreciate that.

2) How good is the dust extraction on these machines? Do they require any modification or is it good enough off the pallet.

3) What dado sets are you using? I'm aware of the 8" freud set for around £80 from Machine Mart but is there anything better out there?

Also open to suggestions of other machines that are unbraked, can take a dado set, and has a 3/4" mitre slot, however I'm 90% sure the Xcalibur will be the one for me.

Thanks!
Danny

 

[Philly]

Danny
I have the 10 inch version of that saw - I don't have the dado extension but can still use a dado head up to 20mm wide.
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[Doug B]

Hi Danny.

I use a Freud dado set on my old Wadkin table saw, no adaptor necessary, only takes minutes to set up.
Might be worth searching places like Daltons etc who recondition machines if you don`t fancy buying second hand of ebay etc.

 

[andypo]

Danny I have the 10" Xcalibur saw fitted with the arbor extension, you just fit it the once, you don't need to keep changing it. Dust extraction is OK but Ive yet to see a table saw with any better extraction. Id def recommend it. Ill take some pics for you tomorrow and put them in this thread cheers Andy

 

[andypo]

As promise pics of arbor

http://img232.imageshack.us/i/dsc0026w.jpg/

http://img268.imageshack.us/i/dsc0024twr.jpg/

 

[Danny]

Thanks for doing that Andy, now it makes a lot more sense, so its more of an arbor replacement then an extension.

I had considered reconditioned machines, but from what I can see they tend to be more expensive then new and even then still require a little modification, longer fence rails etc, and I don't really fancy reconditioning one myself

Interesting that the arbor it comes with can already take 20mm :shock:
if that's the case then why don't they just fit it with the longer arbor in the first place.

Thanks
Danny